Galaxy 1 Communications and Viasat sign production agreement to extend Velaris UAV satellite services
Why It MattersMoving Velaris from proof of concept to production service gives autonomous and uncrewed aviation operators a commercial L-band connectivity option with partner onboarding and billing infrastructure behind it.
Galaxy 1 Communications and Viasat, Inc. announced an agreement to extend Viasat's Velaris satellite communications services. Velaris is Viasat's platform for autonomous and uncrewed aviation, combining connectivity, operational services and a growing partner ecosystem. It uses Viasat's L-band satellite capabilities to support applications including autonomous delivery aircraft for logistics and medicine, flying taxis, and inspection aircraft for emergencies and industrial use in remote locations.
The agreement follows two years of joint development, integration, testing and proof-of-concept activity, during which Galaxy 1 and Viasat validated the operational and commercial capabilities needed for production service delivery. Under the production agreement, Galaxy 1 will provide the partner enablement platform for commercial growth, covering operational support and commercial enablement, including onboarding, provisioning, billing and reporting, as well as infrastructure and service management, including network infrastructure and remote terminal management through Galaxy 1's RTM platform.
Martyn Durrant, Chief Commercial Officer of Galaxy 1 Communications, called the move into production an important milestone and validation of the platform developed with Viasat over the past two years. Sandeep Moorthy, Senior Vice President and GM, Advanced NTN Solutions, New Ventures at Viasat, said partners need scalable frameworks to deploy, manage and scale efficiently, and that the collaboration strengthens the partner network and accelerates services worldwide.
